The Green Pants

At some point yesterday, Linden began asking me to look for a pair of green pants for a Lego person he wanted to play with.  First, let me share with you the process his requests usually take.

9:35 am   "Mom, can you find me a pair of green pants for the

                  Green Lantern?"

9:36 am   "Why not?"

9:37 am   "Please?"

9:40 am   "Okay, here are your options.  You can help me find

                  some green pants and I'll leave you alone.  Or, I'm

                  going to stay right here."

9:41 am   "You're going to make me sad."

9:45 am   "If you don't find some green pants for me I'm not going

                  to love you."

Then, I might get 10-30 minutes of peace before the exact process starts again; give or take a few sentences.  I did get an hour break from the request/demand when we went to the park to play.  

Due to my contrary nature, each time he repeats the process it just makes me less inclined to help him out.  Besides, his room is a disaster and he owns probably five gallons of tiny little Lego parts that I'd have to look through. 

It also bears sharing that he had in his possession at the time several alternative colors of pants.  I tried, at one point, to convince him that the Green Lantern was doing laundry and black pants were a completely acceptable alternative...but no luck.

After I put Linden to bed, I spent two hours trying to add hinges to a very small building.  The main problem being that the opening is slanted and two different hinges are needed.  I made such a mess, that in the long run, I ended up having to take everything apart.  I re-puttied the holes, sanded it down, and repainted the affected area.  

First thing this morning and I was back at it.  For three hours I screwed in and out eight different little screws, four of which can't be reached with my drill.  I even ended up having to replace all eight screws at least twice with longer screws as they eventually lost their grip.  And as I become more and more frustrated, I have to listen to the following sound track:

9:35 am   "Mom, can you find me a pair of green pants for the
                  Green Lantern?"

9:36 am   "Why not?"

9:37 am   "You told me yesterday that you'd find me some today."

9:40 am   "Please?"

9:41 am   "I'm to little to find them by myself."

9.42 am   "Will's still sleeping and he's mean when I wake him up."

9:45 am   "You're going to make me sad."

And it repeats every 10-30 minutes.

At eleven thirty I was contemplating using my hammer to smash the small building into timber; thus removing the need to have functioning hinges when Linden started on round five of "I need some green pants."

"Fine!  I'll find you some damn green pants."

I spent an hour going through every toy box, bag of toys, pile of toys, and his giant tackle box that is filled with just Legos.  Every time I'd find any person piece I'd put it in a container just in case he decided he needed an orange hand, frown face, or blond wig next.  I found a pair of green pants about thirty minutes into my search, but I kept going.  The break from hinges was greatly appreciated.  When I went back to work on my little house, the door was hanging perfectly in less than fifteen minutes. 

Apparently, the secret was green pants.

My Little Village

I've been obsessed with having my own little library since I found out about them.  In case you are one of the other twelve people in America that hasn't heard about the Little Free Library program, here's a quick description: 

People build, or buy, their own small library (most are less then 20x20 inches).  Then they register their library by purchasing a sign from the official site ... this is the only way to get a charter number.  You display the library outside of your home or business.  You are responsible for stocking it, upkeep, etc.  It's a way to bring people in an immediate area closer together.

As with all things, I didn't start with a simple library.  I spent weeks pouring over every online library I could find and compiling a Pinterest file of the library designs that most appealed to me.  Since I predominately want to supply books for children, as our neighborhood is filled with them, I wanted a fun and engaging design.  I never did find exactly what I wanted.  But, I did find a company that makes adorable fairy homes.  After that, nothing else appealed to me.

Once I had selected the design I wanted to use, I had to make plans that included enlarging and making my library water proof.  This is also about the time I decided it would be best to have two separate buildings, one for children and one for adults.  And, of coarse, they should each be two stories.  Why not?  They always say dream big or go home.  The problem is that I am home and it's been over run with small buildings in some process of completion for over three weeks.

Oh, and it's not just two small buildings.  When looking at those hundreds of photos of little libraries I feel in love with the idea of adding a small house that could hold dog treats ... we have a lot of dog walkers in our area.  Then I needed a separate place to hold comment cards.  So my little library, that could have been made from some simple plans available for free online and easily completed in a weekend had turned into a small village of four building; two of which are two story. And they are still not completed.

Having to make my own plans sort of sucked.  I think I would have been okay if the buildings had been perfectly square; but they are not.  So I drew up what I thought were decent plans then cut out everything accordingly.  As I assembled each house I ended up recutting about half of my pieces ... and some for even a third time.  As you can guess, I am not a carpenter.  I have a better understanding of the tools used then most women and I excel at figuring out how things go together ... but that still leaves a lot of room for error.  And I have been abusing the hell out of the room for three weeks.

I have felt more frustration in the last few weeks than is good for my health.  But little by little, I'm winning.  There is progress being made and I can still stand to look at my little building at the end of each night.  I haven't thought of piling them in the back yard and setting them on fire more than once...a day.  I was hoping to finish them last week, but when making the original timeline I forgot that Will would be home for two weeks for Spring Break.  I was also unaware that Steve would be working 6-7 days a week during the entire process; most nights until dark.

Will's out of school this week too, so my progress is still slow.  I'm past the point of estimating when I might have them completed, but I'll post photos of them when they are finally up.  In the mean time, here is my inspiration for the designs I choose. 

Now, I'm off to work on my village.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's off to work I go!